gou rou

Well you guessed it. I DID IT. I ATE IT. Gou rou. Dog meat. The people who manage our teacher cafeteria, or something, put together a nice, special lunch for an end of the semester celebration. Still held in our little canteen, we had lamb, dog, fish, veggies, soup, beer. I don't have any pictures for you, but for those of you who can understand this, it looked a lot like ngow lam. Braised beef something. I avoided the dog for a little while, then picked a tiny piece, which sat in the corner of my tray for most of the meal while I ate the other things (except the lamb, of which I only had one piece because I generally don't like lamb. except the heavily spiced skewers from street food, or the little lamb hot pot restaurant, which is actually really good). I ate the other things and eyed the piece of meat. I knew I would eat it, but it took me a while to actually do it. When I finally did it, it was fine. Tasted almost just like beef. Tender. Not bad at all. I even chose a slightly bigger piece to be able to taste it better. I don't think I'll ever eat it again, but overall, not a bad experience. Lesson to be learned: sometimes you should just put aside your western prejudices/customs and try something new. And meat is meat. I eat cow. I eat pig. What's the difference with dog? These particular dogs are raised for food, not for pets, as my contact teacher Anne said.

Helen, the owner of the recording company I work for, seems to like me and my voice a lot. She's a really nice woman from Xi'an (she offered me her brother's place to stay when I went, but I declined), who is famous in Xi'an and Shenzhen from her days as tv personality. News anchorwoman, I think. Anyhow, she also does video recordings. Not sure exactly what they are for, private or public video/television, but they are english instructional programs. She asked my advice last week when she came to our chinese class about who I thought would be good for a show she's filming. She ultimately chose a couple herself, but she gave me a call today and asked if I would be in it, for a pronunciation/phonics part, and for some conversation bits. Normally I think things like this call for caucasian faces, but for some reason she thinks I"ll do a good job. So on sunday, I'll spend a lot of time at the BaoAn shenzhen tv station making a video. I won't be getting paid a whole lot of money since my actual recording time will be about 2 hours, but I'll have to wait around for the whole group and takes and makeup or whatever. strange huh? who would've thought?

january

New Year's in Hong Kong. Fun.
4 days in Xi'an. Reallyreally nice, saw those earthen warriors and the Muslim Quarter, some pagodas, and a museum. climbed one of the most revered mountains in china, hua shan, beautiful. ate lots of snacks and sweets from the region. Froze. Pictures from this year are slowly going up again, but seeing as I'm currently posting the ones from my october holiday, doesn't look lke these will appear for a little while.
Since then, I've been chilling in Shenzhen for the last week and a half, mostly doing more recording work for those children's english books and hanging out with more locals lately. Met some italians and some chinese, so it's been nice to interact with people who live here more long-term than I.
I've been in and out of work, finishing my grading of science workbooks and helping grade the exams that the kids took last thursday and friday. turns out only my 5th graders took the bilingual english exam that includes a chunk of science worth 10%. looked like most of them did well, so that's good. anyway, went to school yesterday (monday) and my 4th grade teacher "reminded" me that I was to teach today, like a regular tuesday, as if I was supposed to know. after being on vacation for 2+ weeks already. so that sucked, but it was fine I guess. I taught them about american food. more fun than science. the 4th graders seemed to enjoy it, but the jerk 5th graders were bad as usual and didn't really participate except for 4 or so regular talkers. Sure, it was the last day of class for the semester, but still. they really don't respect me, and I'm bad at disciplining.
I received 45 yuan for being on the 2nd grade teachers' team for teacher basketball, which I didn't know about, which took place while I was out of town. I felt bad but they insisted I take it since all the teachers got money. Special end of the semester bonus, I guess. I also found out that there will be some sort of performance on friday. I have been told nothing else about it, except, "you will be in the performance too." umm. ok. ?. they also tell me there's no school tomorrow or thursday, seemingly implying that I don't have to come. which is sort of true because I never really had to come the past couple weeks. The kids are done today, but come back friday for some closing ceremony. don't know anything about that either. and I still don't know when I have to come back to school after break. nobody knows. and nobody will tell me anything concrete. but that's china. but anyway, if I don't go to school tomorrow or thursday, how will I participate in this performance?
But, I was informed that there will be a big teacher lunch on thursday, in which we will partake in the consumption of lamb. and dog. (!) yes, I have seen dog carcasses hanging in little hole in the wall windows. and it is sad for a westerner to see. but hmm, will I do it? can I bring myself to it? I will let you know.